#type of family Meyer wanted the Cullens to be

[chapterbookluvr]

“I’ve taken a life, but never shared a life.” - A Comprehensive Review of Sophie Lark’s Serial Killer Romance Novel, There Are No Saints

Content Warning: Abuse, sexual assault, murder, domestic violence, self-harm Spoiler Alert for There Are No Saints by Sophie Lark

“Well. Looks like I’m into serial killer romances now. So that’s brand new information. In my defense, sociopaths should not be this attractive.” writes Larissa, giving Sophie Lark’s romance novel There Are No Saints a five-star review on Goodreads. When typing in “serial killer romance” into Google, you’re greeted with listicles titled “Serial Killer Love Stories” and “5 Horrific Serial Killer Romance Books (Psychopath Love Story)”. Lark’s story is one of hundreds being mass-produced for Amazon’s Netflix-esque book subscription service, Kindle Unlimited.

Something that should be said about this novel before the full review: this book is not intended to be ‘good.’ L. Brown, who gave No Saints 4/5 stars on Amazon, says “Just please read the synopsis and content warnings before jumping in. And don’t take it too seriously while you’re reading it. It’s for the best”. This is the nature of these ‘trashy’ romance novels. They are known to be mediocre but incredibly attractive because they are filled to the brim with sexy characters and fantastical smut. This quality designation does not absolve them of criticism, though. But any ‘negative’ aspects books like these can have tend to fall into the rug-sweeping ‘taboo’ category. Toxic relationship? Taboo. Poorly written characters? Also, apparently, taboo. Any piece of criticism these novels receive fade into the background, as loving readers clamor to say, “If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t read it!”

Smut, as a category, is sexually explicit content. Content that could border on assault (or just plain be assault), consensual sex, passionate moments. The more absurd, the better. Quality falls wayside, predictably, as written porn comes to life. What this does to the culture surrounding these romance novels is conjure an immense aura of shame. Women are sly about reading their ‘smutty’ books. Those who do not want to purchase a Kindle (thus discretion), can get books from smut authors who market their novels as having “innocent covers” compared to the traditionally more lewd ones, ex. half-naked men, buff werewolves, women in the throes of passion, etc. While all being romantic in nature, these books boast strong female characters and caring male love interests. Never mind that she is pregnant, homeless, kidnapped, sick. He is a Mafia boss, a professor, a dragon, her step-brother. The core of all of these stories is love and heart, marketed in a very sharp package. Sometimes, though, the package is opened, and the only thing left inside is blood.

There Are No Saints fits perfectly into this ‘smutty’ romance genre. The book details a serial killer obsessing over an up-and-coming artist. The killer, Cole Blackwell (no relation to Edward Cullen or Jacob Black from the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, though Cole is regularly described as very pale and is compared, multiple times, to Dracula), is a famous artist from an old, rich, San Franciscan family. He has no loved ones, emotions, or redeeming qualities. Mara Eldritch (Lark loves a symbolic last name) is a young starving artist, desperate for studio space and traumatized (in a sexy way) by her abusive past. Any other characters in the books are useless, serving only as placeholders for cheap plot points (abusive parents to explain trauma away, best friends being murdered for sexy thrill, etc.).

Romance author Sophie Lark opens No Saints, confessing, in her dedication, “Writing this book was intense therapy for me, dredging up some deep hurts from a long time ago”. Therapy can look like a lot of things for different people - for Lark it looks like a heartfelt statement followed by a book drenched in dubious consent, assault, murder, and abuse. There is no additional satirical or critical layer. If Lark was trying to make commentary about women having to endure in the face of abusive men, she missed that mark entirely and ended up playing directly into it. It’s an unfortunate result to an interesting concept. Instead of Mara  being independent and daring, she has meaningless calls-to-actions that ultimately get snuffed out by the man she apparently is trying to rebel against. It’s a lesson in futility marketed as feminism.

There are No Saints begins in Cole’s point of view (the novel alternates between his and Mara’s), while he is gloomily presiding over an art show, wherein his serial killer rival is also showcasing a piece. His enemy is named Alastor Shaw (possible reference to the chief torturer demon in the hit CW show Supernatural, knowing Lark), an older, uglier man who has been in not only an art battle, but a killing battle, with Cole, for an indeterminate amount of time. The difference between the Good serial killer (Cole) and the Bad serial killer (Shaw) is that Shaw kills women. That’s it. There Are No Saints does not contain a “killer-of-killers” redeemable love interest. Cole kills 14 innocent men, but no women, “I don’t kill women, typically, This is not out of any petty moral constraint. It’s just too fucking easy”.

Enter Mara into the gallery. Described by Cole as “a nobody” wearing “a loose white shift dress” with “battered Docs [that] look older than she is”, she is immediately identified by Cole as an anonymous girl that is dirty and small.  Someone bumps into Mara, spilling wine all over her dress. She runs to the bathroom, Cole thinking she’s trying to wash the stains out of her dress, but this “nobody” returns, doing “quite the opposite: she’s tie-dyed the entire thing”. This quick Project-Runaway-style turnaround is what Lark attempted to do with Mara’s character for the entire novel: be quirky in the face of destruction.

Throughout No Saints, Mara is repeatedly described to be unique. She wears overalls with nothing underneath, she reads Dracula (highlighting only topical quotes for Cole to read when he breaks into her house later), she listens to EDM. She has an abusive mother, no money, and shit luck. These novels, with their unfortunate protagonists, all possess negative traits that are never accompanied by negative  qualities. They want a romance with all of the edge but none of the grit. Mara has “never known what it would be like to swipe a card without wondering if the balance would clear” but has “never starved yet”. She’s down on her luck, but God, not starving-down, that would be unbecoming.

Female protagonists in dark romance novels tend to be either 1) demure, quiet, and inexperienced, or 2) snarky, haughty, and whorish. Either way, their character arc always peaks at becoming as ‘dark’ or ‘twisted’ as their male love interest. Their subsidiary personality traits, like being kind or witty, act as seasoning to their congealment into their boyfriend.

As far as how Mara is interpreted by readers as a character, some, like Ayman’s five-star review of No Saints on Goodreads, regard Mara as: “…so admirable, strong, and will put this psycho in his place when needed. she isn’t the “i can change him” type or the super submissive type that would make me say “stand up girl”. cole does that all on his own. she literally makes him feel regret for the first time for some shit he pulled. and if there’s one thing i’m gonna eat up, is a woman bringing wreaking chaos on a very organized man UNAPOLOGETICALLY!!! the shear revenge she pulls…she’s the puppeteer and he’s the puppet!”

While other people, like Lori, with their one-star rating, disagree, “A sexually aggressive heroine does not a strong heroine make”.

The collision of these characters, Cole, Shaw, and Mara, happens after the gallery showing. After smoking some weed in the alley with one of her friends, Mara is struck on the back of the head and wakes in the trunk of a moving vehicle. Lark then spends a lengthy paragraph detailing the duct tape, bag, zip-ties, and rope used to gag and bind Mara. She gives the readers all the gory details of the kidnapping, details you’d hear on Forensic Files, TikTok compilations, all the warnings women are given about strange men. How to break out of zip-ties, how to find the emergency pull-tab in the trunk (“WHERE’S THE FUCKING LATCH!” wonders Mara), what cuts duct tape. Mara inventories her trauma exactly how someone who likes true crime would want to hear about it.

After drafting this Criminal Minds script in her head, the trunk Mara is in, flings open, “It’s only when the cold air hits my flesh that I realize I’m naked – or at least, partly naked”. How, in this detailed description of her current state, did she not realize she’s naked? The answer is obvious: it wouldn’t be sexy. Mara is dumped in an alley way by a mysterious man. He dressed her in a skimpy BDSM outfit and ‘stripper heels’. Every trauma Mara goes through in No Saints either makes her even more resilient or, just hotter. Before leaving her to die, the man pierces her nipples and slits her wrists. The chapter ends.

Back to Cole, walking home from the gallery and wondering if he’s going to be caught for his most recent kill (he isn’t, the whole situation is forgotten immediately because there has to be room for sexy moments). He stumbles upon Mara, gagged, and bound, and immediately understands her presence in ‘his territory’ as a message from Shaw, “I don’t kill on impulse. I prepare my location. And I never lose control. He hopes I’ll break all three rules”. Ignoring the fact that those three rules are all fundamentally the same, character-wise, Mara becomes a question mark for Cole, “I’ve never killed a woman. I assumed I would at some point, but not some skinny girl, and not in some frenzy of fucking and stabbing like that ghoul Shaw”.

This is where our love birds get introduced. Cole, standing stoically above bleeding Mara, while she whimpers for help, and he thinks of killing her. This is where character development happens, right? This is the moment where we see Cole start his redemption towards Mara? –“I take one last glance at the girl’s beautifully tortured body. Then I step over her and carry on my way”. No. Cole leaves Mara to die. Thus is their meet-cute.

Mara, through sheer power of will (“I’m not dying here. I’m not fucking doing it.”), gets up and survives this murder attempt by Shaw. The rest of No Saints is Cole and Mara orbiting each other, him growing more possessive over someone he thought he watched die, and Mara just needing money and a place to make art. They are, not subtlety, given the Hades and Persephone motif, though Cole expresses his distaste for such obvious reference in the first chapter, insulting a sculpture that has “all the symbolism hitting you over the head”.

As the plot continues, Cole inevitably does something murder-y, like threaten to kill someone Mara has sex with. She does this as revenge, Cole knows, because he puts a camera in her art studio and Mara purposefully has sex with someone else on a giant canvas (that she later hangs in Cole’s office) while making direct eye contact with the security camera the whole time. Cole threatens to kill someone who slapped Mara’s ass (bar is on the ground, as he is already a serial killer), and Mara, throughout, all but gasps and stares.

Lark attempts, again and again, to define Mara’s character. Unfortunately, those definitions tended to be mutually exclusive. For instance, at an art show that Cole demanded Mara wear something specific at (which she rebelled from, saying “Well fuck him, I pick out my own clothes.”), they have an intimate moment after Cole manages to get Mara’s painting sold. She finds herself suddenly attracted to the man that left her for dead, saying “I wanted death. I wanted HIM” (Lark loves using capital letters in place of description). Mara offers a sexual favor to Cole, internally thinking “This is the deal with the devil. He owns me. He controls me”. Then, a mere four sentences later, tells him “I wanted to fuck you. But you don’t own me, Cole. And you never will”. Lark makes it hard to ignore inconsistency in character, especially when it happens on the same page.

Mara and Cole’s relationship can be crudely defined by a phrase Mara tells herself while in one of her many painful contemplations of Cole: “Rage isn’t the same thing as ‘caring’”. Cole is violent, disrespectful, and cruel. He compares having sex with her as being “strapp[ed] into an electric chair”. His redemption comes from the misery he spares Mara from, though it was him putting her in it in the first place. Cole dares to admire the strength Mara has to overcome her trauma, like a predator playing with his meal. Even outside of their interactions with each other, Cole is disrespectful - Mara tells him about when her dad died, saying ���I loved my father, the day I lost him was the worst day of my life”. Cole, ever the loving partner, responds with a smile, “The worst day so far”.

Cole, like Mara, is a very contradictory character. Not in a anti-hero, grey-morality-type way. Cole doesn’t make sense in a poorly-written way. His violent profession is emphasized in the beginning of No Saints and used only as a spunky character trait for the rest of the novel. His serial killing distills down into him just being a violent and broken man. Something attractive and fixable. He later starts developing feelings for Mara, “Mara warps who I am. But in the moment, when I’m with her…I like it. I see things I never saw before. I see things, Hell, I even taste things differently”. Mara, just being her, poor, inconsistent self, is curing this man’s murderous instincts. Cole, as someone who didn’t ever kill women, doesn’t make sense to have this redemption arc. Mara is not hard for him, she’s just new. If Shaw fell in love with her and resisted killing her, that would be character development. Cole has not grown, nor has his serial killing done anything for the plot but be shock value. In fact, the mention of the 14 people he killed is rare, and he doesn’t kill again after he meets Mara. He’s never caught, either: “Getting away with murder is pretty fucking easy. Only 63 percent of homicides are solved under the best of circumstances—and that includes the cases where the idiot criminal is literally holding the smoking gun. There are precious few genius detectives, despite what network television would have you believe. I’ve killed fourteen people and I’ve yet to receive a single knock on my door.”

If Cole’s violent crimes are the equivalent to a day job in how they impact his life and intimidate Mara (both meaning, not at all). It brings up the very important question of: why is Cole a serial killer in the first place?

Back in the beginning of No Saints, we see Alastor Shaw make a pass at some young girls at the gallery showing. Cole, watching, thinks to himself, “Alastor’s need disgusts me. He’s such a cliché of himself. College co-eds, for fucks sake.” Cole goes out of his way to snidely mock Shaw, whispering under his breath, “You and Bundy”. This reference to a real-life killer makes the true-crime loving audience that will inevitably devour No Saints feel included – as seen in RenegadeWoman’s five-star review of No Saints on Amazon, “I have never read a book so psychologically dark – except about Ted Bundy”. But what true, narcissistic, sociopath cares about other killers? Especially long dead ones? Lark makes her characters just culturally literate enough for the readers to sit up and go “OMG! I know that reference!”

There Are No Saints is a part of the growing “violent criminal romance” subgenre, something consequential to the recent hyper-popularization of true crime content. Especially on the social media platform TikTok, where it is hard to parse out the difference between fake crime and true crime, and the fans of both tend to be one in the same. So, lines between crime and romance, fact, and fiction, are destined to blur.

Mikayla Raquel, reviewing There Are No Saints on Amazon, says: “what is it about serial unaliver smut that is just sending me into a tizzy lately!! Cole is yummy yummy yummm…now i want a psycho artist unaliver control freak to rent the house across from me and watch my every move and become obsessed with me…and be really rich and sexy LMAO.”

The phrase “unalive” comes from users trying to circumvent TikTok’s rigorous yet unpredictable explicit content tagging system, so “murder/killing/suicide” has transformed into “unalive”. The presence of the word here, in an Amazon review that does not scan for such verbiage, indicates the origin of this person’s exposure to There Are No Saints: BookTok.

“Dark romance”, as a genre, is very popular on ‘BookTok’ (the term coined for the reading community on TikTok), hijacking recommendation lists and Goodreads charts. Most dark romance stories bank on the fact that these readers will be so caught up in the subversion of classic romance tropes that they will not notice the decreasing quality of the writing. It’s a lot of “look at how bad this man is treating this woman, BUT he is also nice to her a few times”. The disparity between these two concepts: abuse, and subsequent love, is what drives the popularity of these novels. They bank on the idea of “he’s an asshole to everyone but me” , while the audience don’t realize the relationship they’re reading about is going far deeper than domestic violence.

Redemption arcs in dark romance novels seem to have no limits. When talking of heterosexual romance, the man can keep the woman locked in a cage (Birdie’s Biker, Misty Walker) or even stalk and sexually assault her (Haunting Adeline, H.D. Carlton). It does not matter, as the man is redeemable, even when he says he’s not. His irredeemability is a character flaw, not an actual plot point. These men are regularly painted as satanic creatures with one soft spot: their woman they abuse. This broadcasts a dangerous message: if a man protects you, he is allowed to hurt you.

Cole does just this, regularly hurting and seducing Mara. The climax of the novel is a sexually explicit scene where Mara, during intercourse, reveals to Cole that she was sexually abused as a child. Cole uses this experience to re-train Mara, even as she says “No, wait!” Her abuse becomes sexual fodder for Cole to manipulate. Though, it works, as afterwards, she “sob[s] again, this time from pleasure and relief”. Thus, Mara and Cole come to a close.

There Are No Saints is, at its core, an unconventional love story. It’s certainly not the best thing ever written, but it sure is entertaining. Mara summarizes the reading experience best, “I’d rather be dead than bored. And heaven sounds pretty fucking boring”. ■

★★☆☆☆

[vavuska]

B-BUT LAURENT IS BLACK!

In the movies Laurent appears quite different to his description in the books, being dark skinned and having dreadlocks, but in fact Laurent, in the books, is a white European from France.

In the books Laurent is described as an olive skinned, dark haired vampire with a French accent. He came from a minor aristocrat family and was a courtier, a member of the court of King Louis XVI, and had an adulatory mentality, a fashination for power and status that made him BEG to became a vampire, unlike most of the other characters, who never gave consent to the transformation, Laurent desired to became a vampire to gain more power among his peers. Laurent joined James and Victoria's coven after being rejected by Volturi for being untrustworthy (Laurent tried to enter in the Romanian Coven first), so he decided to team up with James as a way to became stronger and gain influence in vampire community, so he would get another chance to join the Volturi.

In fact, Laurent was one of the worst characters of the Saga: he isn't really loyal to anyone except himself and always searched the company of more powerful individuals in order to gain a higher status and position both in human and vampire community.

With the Mormons idea of dark skin as a sign of evil and sin, seems very problematic that the only black vampire is actually a traitor and a very manipulative person with a low morality.

In a 2018 interview the director Catherine Hardwicke, who shot the first movie, told The Daily Beast that the one point of contention between herself and Meyer was “that I wanted a lot more of the cast to be diverse, (but....) She said, 'I wrote that they had this pale glistening skin!'”

Hardwicke said that Meyer eventually came around to the idea of Kenyan-American actor Edi Gathegi playing the character Laurent, but she thought it was because he was "one of the antagonistic vampires." For this reason, some people think Meyer would only agree to cast a non-white actor if they were to play a villain, and this could be true, but it's also true that most of European vampires are evil or at least moral ambiguously murders (out of metaphor the Volturi are a representation of the Catholic Church, which system of believes are considered deeply wrong by Mormons/Cullens), while the American-born Cullen (except for British Carlisle, who is the son of a pastor, and the Denali coven, the other group of vegetarian vampires in Alaska) are the good ones — even if Jasper is a Confederate soldier. However, the explicit “white washing” caused by vampirism to some-what positive characters is more relevant than the fact that Twilight is full of evil white characters too (which are, as I said, a metaphor for other type of organized christian religions).

Stephanie Meyer in her“The Twilight Saga: Official Illustrated Guide” wrote that vampire pallor is part of the transformation new vampires undergo that beautifies them as their melanin drains away, resulting in their white skin.

In fact, in the first chapter, in which she describes the physical characteristics common to all vampires, Meyer wrote:

In the Twilight universe all vampires were originally human. As vampires, they retain a close physical resemblance to their human form, the only reliably noticeable differences being a universal pallor of skin, a change in eye color, and heightened beauty.

More orver the typical vampire pallor is not attribuite, as traditional thrope impose, to the fact that vampires are dead, recalling the repulsive look of a corpse, but to an element of crystalline, supernatural form of beauty, which is described as following:

The common factor of beauty among vampires is mostly due to this crystalline skin. The perfect smoothness, gloss, and even color of the skin give the illusion of a flawless face.

So, dark skinned or deeper skin toned people will have very light olive skin as vampires. In fact the only creature who keeps a natural dark-skin is Nahuel, the vampire-human hybrid (born to a white European vampire and a indigenous woman), who is described having “dark brown skin”, while his Aunt Huilen, a full-indigenous woman has “an olive tone to her pale skin” due to being a vampire. Let's see more examples in the book where this “white washing” effect of vampirism is more explicit:

Vampires in Stephanie Meyer's books are white and pure because Mormons believe people who are not white will be white in heaven. I can't 100% remember the reason or events but during some event they think God turned some people black because they either betrayed him or Jesus. So when you are a good person and go to heaven he will remove that. If you look into what Mormons believe it's almost as crazy as scientology.

Ok, apparently, Mormons think black and dark-skinned people are in some way descendants of Cain, who was banished from human community and condamned by God to a nomadic life. However, God was pleased by blood sacrifice (God favored Abel who killed animals for God, while Cain offered the products of earth he cultivated) and gives Cain a mark, known as “Mark of Cain” (Genesis 4:15). This mark of Cain is God's promise to offer Cain divine protection from premature death with the stated purpose of preventing anyone from killing him. Bible does not identify the exact nature of the mark God put on Cain. Whatever it was, it was a sign/indicator that Cain was not to be killed (but also a warn that helped others to spot him as a murder to not trust). Some propose that the mark was a scar, or some kind of tattoo (Maybe this is the source of Tattoo Prohibition in Leviticus 19:28). Whatever the case, the precise nature of the mark is not the focus of the passage. The focus is that God would not allow people to exact vengeance against Cain. Whatever the mark on Cain was, it served this purpose.

However, Brigham Young, one of the founders of Mormons and one of the earliest leader, described black people as cursed with dark skin as punishment for Cain’s murder of his brother. “Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood,” he declared in 1852. Young deemed black-white intermarriage so sinful that he suggested that a man could atone for it only by having “his head cut off” and spilling “his blood upon the ground.”

For more information about the racial question among Mormons, I suggest this article of New York Times:

[whenitcounts33]

Join Me pt. 2

What she remembers: Fire burning every cell of her body, reforming and then burning again. Her heart, beating much too fast to be safe, pumping the fire through her body. Victoria speaking to her in a soft voice, crooning to her and brushing hands Bella can barely feel through her hair. It’ll be over soon. I’m sorry. I remember how much it hurts. The fire slowly starting to leave her body, starting with her toes and then her legs and torso. It dragged to her heart, hotter than before.

What she remembers: Edward. The soft venom in his honey voice. I don’t want you anymore. I’m a good liar. All of the Cullen's leaving. Leaving her. Her best friend Alice leaving without a goodbye, half a year of friendship gone because of a paper cut. Esme staring at her in mute horror, hand clasped over her mouth and eyes black with hunger. Jasper’s venom coated teeth snapping inches from her face, a ferocious snarl tearing from his throat. Carlie’s steady breathing as he stitched her better, Rosalie’s smug expression as she left the house, Emmett with her, a firm grip on Jasper. The fear ripping through her, a scream tearing from her sore throat when she woke up every night (when she wakes up two-days later, she remembers them, him, with a soft hatred, understanding why they, he, had to leave her but hating them, him, for it).

What she remembers: When Bella woke up, it was with a gasp. Someone’s hand, skin warm and smooth, maybe soft, was holding hers.

What she remembers: Her body flying from the floor and into a corner, bent into a predatory position, protecting herself. Victoria watched her warily from where Bella originally was, hands held out in a placating gesture. She only noticed her with a part of her brain, the rest of her was focused on everything else. She could see, taste, smell everything. “Wow,” she breathed, and then froze, she could taste the dust motes on her tongue, and the tangy taste of leather and cotton. Her voice, though, that startled her. It was higher pitched, musical, like a bell, nothing like Victoria’s little girl’s voice.

                                                          *****************************

Bella loved running, going so fast everything should have blurred as it flew past her, her bare feet barely touching the ground. It felt like flying and for those first few days Bella and Victoria raced each other all the way from Washington to Canada and back again. Victoria let Bella hunt her own way, following closely so nothing went wrong. It felt weird, sinking her teeth into some homeless man’s throat, but the taste and feel of his blood kept her from thinking about it too much. Her eyes were still ruby red; she jumped in fright every time she saw them in a reflection. Victoria told her, after she stopped laughing at Bella, that they wouldn’t be so bright in a year.

It was after the third feeding – round of hunting? – that she bought the topic up to Victoria, nervously fingering the fringes of her yellow sweater. For the first month of her “new” life, she ripped hundreds of shirts and pants trying to get them on. She was so much stronger than the flimsy fabrics now.

“Do you think,” she began, smiling softly when Victoria swatter her fingers away from the sweater, “that we should change our eating habits?” She remembered the Cullen's, thoughts clouds and hazy, and their gold eyes and how they hunted animals, not humans.

Victoria arched a brow, head tilted, something Bella still associated with house cats. “What do you mean?” She asked and Bella swallowed, noting the dull burn in her throat, and sighed softly. “I think we should hunt animals.” She waited with bated breath as the words sunk in, Victoria’s mouth thinning and her eyes turning speculative. “Why do you think that?” she finally asked after 105 seconds of silence. Bella blew out a noisy breath of relief and launched into her explanation. How he – Bella never spoke about them by name and Victoria never questioned it, she just went with it – and the rest of his family had hunter animals, not humans, and that it left them much the same as her and Victoria. How he had hunted after the human predators for a time, how he stopped because he didn’t want to be a monster.

Victoria looked at Bella and Bella looked back, a silent conversation between the two of them going on. Victoria saw how Bella truly wanted this, how only feeding from any human that they found was slowly killing her. Bella saw how Victoria shied away from the thought of hunting animals but liked the idea of hunting down the predators, of making them suffer the way their prey did. Victoria nodded, reaching out her hand, and Bella immediately put her hand in hers, linking their fingers.

This, their relationship, was something Bella never had when she was human. Something she could have had with Alice, had it not been cut short. “We could try,” she says, and hope flares up and Bella throws herself at Victoria, the red-head yelping as the force of the tackle makes Victoria fly backwards, right into an old spruce that crashes to the ground with a loud groan.

“You’re an idiot,” Victoria laughs, fond, and Bella beams.

                                        *****************************

Bella watched as Victoria paced back and forth, too fast for a human to see, too fast for Bella to watch without wincing as her feet makes permanent marks in the cement. “Vic,” Bella sighs, interrupted by the groan of the human boy lying in a pool of his own blood six-feet from where she perched.

Riley Biers. 

Six-feet-three-inches and pure muscle. Not stocky like a football player, but lankier, like a swimmer. Sandy blond hair and a sharp jawline with high cheekbones. A beautiful boy, really. Victoria had stopped him from dying after feeding from his attackers; three assholes who jumped him and brutalized him and left him for dead. Victoria hunted them down and made them pay. Victoria had called up Bella, swearing and frantic, on the verge of a panic attack and Bella had rushed to her, worried about her sister.

“I can’t let him die, Bell,” Victoria sobbed, letting Bella tug her into a tight hug, red curls tickling her cheek. “I think he’s my mate,” she whispered a while after, having gotten Riley stabilized, the bleeding done for now, his ribs wrapped up nice and tight. Bella had taken a nursing class when they got to Seattle, after being in Canada for half a year, and felt sure enough in her skills that she knew Riley would last for a few more hours. Or until Victoria figured out what she wanted to do.

Bella glanced over at her best friend, brows raised, sympathy clear in her orange-amber eyes. “Why do you say that?” She asked, knowing she had to be the one to stay clinical, to not let her emotions or feelings get in the way of what needed to happen. She glanced down at Riley, at the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

“Because” Victoria sighed, running both hands through the snarled mass of red curls, “I could tell from the moment I heard him scream. It was killing me, knowing someone was hurting him, that he was in pain. Then I got to him and took one look at his face and it was like something clicked. Like I was missing something and didn’t realize until he was right there.”

Bella pressed her lips together and glanced down at Victoria. She placed her arms around the other woman, letting her lean against her for comfort. “Then change him,” she whispered. “If he feels the same way about you that you do about him when he wakes up. . ..” She trailed off, shrugging, Victoria hissed slightly when the motion jostled her head on Bella’s shoulder. She was thinking about it though, Bella knew, in the clinical, careful way that she thought.

“Do you really think so?” She asked, voice soft and shy and hesitant and Bella was surprised that her spitfire of a best friend was nervous about this human boy. Though, she supposed, this was certainly not a situation that anyone would be comfortable or sure in. She wondered if Carlisle was this nervous before creating another vampire to join his family. Was he this nervous, or was he self-assured, confident that he was making the right decision?

Victoria suddenly sat up straight, a gasp leaving her mouth and she flew the three-feet to Riley Biers, hands fluttering uselessly over him, eyes wide and frantic. Riley was watching her, cheeks bright red like he had a fever, his own eyes wide, lips parted like he wanted to say something, but Bella beat him to it. “Now or never, Vic,” she said, kneeling down on the other side of Riley, movements slow and deliberate so as to not frighten him. Victoria drew in a deep breath, wincing when the smell and taste of his blood surrounded her.

She told him about the change, about what Bella and Victoria did, how they tried to protect girls, and boys, from those who hurt them, who manipulated them for their own gain. How Riley had a choice: they could change him, turn him into a vampire; they could let him die, peacefully, with no pain; or they could bring him to a hospital.

Three days later, Riley Biers woke up as a vampire. Two months later Bella had to leave Seattle for a few days because she was not listening to Victoria and Riley have sex. No, she’d rather burn again.

                                          *****************************

It was a three months later when they met Bree Tanner. She was a tiny thing and Bella felt a maternal affection and a need to protect for the girl the minute she saw her. She was sitting in a corner, knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She was watching Bella and Bella was watching Bree.

Bella knew Bree was poor, that she had no real home life. She saw her nearly get into some creeps’ car because he offered to buy her dinner for a blowie. Thank god Bree had the good sense to realize she’d probably end up with some disease if she did this and said no. Bella would have thrown up if she could. She settled for draining the guy dry and leaving him in the alley she found him in. Three days later she saw Bree again and this time Bella got her lunch; a turkey sandwich from a Deli Bree likes, with a bag of Taki’s and a strawberry shake from a McDonald’s down the street. Bella also bullies Bree into drinking two bottles of water.

After, when Bree asks why Bella did this, the woman could only shrug, not truly knowing. “You look like you could use the meal and that you don’t know a lot of people who would buy you lunch.” Bree had smiled at that, tentative and as pretty as the sun after a long day of rain. Bella promises herself she’ll buy Bree lunch, or any meal, whenever they see each other.

It’s a month later when Bree’s father dies, and the poor girl is homeless. Bella gets a call from a payphone and rushes to Bree, pulling the crying girl into a tight hug that steals the breath from Bree’s lungs (Bella finally realizes how easily Edward could have killed her when she holds Bree’s fragile, human body in her arms).

Riley and Victoria are with her, standing a few feet back so as to not frighten the girl – neither admit it’s because Bree smells good and Riley is still too new to be trusted so close to a human he wasn’t planning on feeding from. Victoria watches the fond look grow in Bella’s eyes, the way she brushes a lock of black hair from the girl’s forehead, the way the girl doesn’t flinch away from Bella’s alien touch. Bella hadn’t flinched away from Victoria’s touch, but Bella was weird and something different was going on in her brain, so she couldn’t really fault her for that.

Riley tugged her closer, tight against his side and Victoria smiled at the familiar flash of heat that went through her body, snuggling into his side and wrapping her arms around his waist. He wasn’t breathing too much, she knows, even knowing Bella and Victoria would never let him hurt someone he shouldn’t. Could never be too careful. “D’you think Bells will change her?” He whispered, low enough anyone that could walk by would have no chance of hearing. Bella, of course, hears him though, and stretches her arm out behind her to flash Riley the finger, making him shake with suppressed laughter.

“Maybe,” Victoria murmurs, resting her head against Riley’s shoulder and listens to Bella ask Bree about her classes at school, listens to Bree go on and on and on about a short story she’s writing for her English class. “We just finished Macbeth though, so she has to give us the test before we really get into the stories. My teacher told me I wrote the best essay in all her classes,” she gloats and Bella beams, proud as any mother. “You’ll have to let me read it,” Bella says and Bree nods eagerly, “’Course,” she promises.

Neither Victoria or Riley is surprised when Bella changes Bree and the two are joined at the hip, Bree always holding onto Bella’s hand and Bella always smoothing down Bree’s hair.

Bella lays at night, Bree curled up against her side as she softly reads from a book of poems by Audre Lorde. Victoria has her head in Riley’s lap, his fingers carding through her wild curls, both listening to Bree’s soft voice.

“In the blood in the bone over coffee/ before dashing for elevators going/ in opposite direction without goodbyes,” she reads out loud and Bella smiles, closing her eyes.

She finally has her family.

[andreafmn]

Collision - Chapter 4

Word Count: 3,821

Characters: Female Reader Uley Character, Sam Uley, Allison Uley, Charlie Swan, Bella Swan, Seth Clearwater, Billy Black, Jacob Black, Emily Young, Paul Lahote, Harry and Sue Clearwater, Leah Clearwater

Story Description: (Y/N) Uley is back home after being away for four years. Her life at its first standstill and she is taking this time to find out who she is without school. But she never thought that coming back to the reservation would turn her whole life around. In the midst of secrets and mystery, a man crashes into (Y/N)’s and her life will never be the same.

*DISCLAIMER* I do not own in any way Twilight, all credits of the pre-established characters, script, and storyline belong to Stephanie Meyer and Summit Entertainment. The only thing I own is Uley Reader insert, any upcoming characters, and her storyline, as well as her effects in the others’ story line.

Chapter: 4/?

A/N: Don’t know if I ever mentioned it, but the story takes place before New Moon but after Twilight. It starts at the end of May after the dance, so it’d be the summer before Bella’s birthday in September. If you enjoy my writing I’ll also be posting them in AO3 and Wattpad along with other stories (I also hope to start taking requests if ya’ll want) Hope you enjoy and all constructive criticism is encouraged.

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Chapter 4

The next time she awoke she was back in sight of the blinding hospital lights. Her head was heavily pounding and the clothes on her body felt alien to her. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the white lights of the sanitized room, but they were suddenly off.

“Back again, Miss Uley?” She recognized the voice, Dr. Cullen. “I’ve already turned the lights off so don’t worry about that.”

Her eyes finally opened to reveal the smooth pale face of the doctor. A wave of calmness rushed over her as soon as her eyes connected with his golden ones.

“What can I say?” She chuckled. “I just couldn’t stay away.”

“Well, it seems you’ve been having a recurring headache, insomnia, memory lapses, and a lack of appetite. It looks like post-concussive syndrome. Your mom told us you were feeling like this for a few days, why didn’t you come back?” Carlisle questioned. He was trying his best to look like he was breathing but if he took even a single breath all his years of self-control would be over in an instant.

“I thought if I could just make it to at least seven days it could clear me from coming back to the hospital, at least as a patient.”

“What do you mean?” This comment had perked the interest of the man. Thoughts raced through his head faster than he could analyze them.

“I was thinking of applying for a medical assistant job here in the hospital. I recently got my degree in biology, and I’ve been thinking of going to medical school after.”

“That sounds like a plan, but let’s work on getting you better first.” It did sound like a good plan to Carlisle. He wanted to be as close as possible to her every single day, but it also meant he would have to work triple as hard to control his thirst. “We’d like to keep you for the next few days and make sure you’re in good health before you can go back to business as usual.”

“How long would a few days be?”

“About four to five days, just to make sure that the symptoms don’t worsen, and we can give you an all-clear.” It would also give him a few days to grow accustomed to her smell. “We can work over that application for medical assistant, make sure it’s something you want to do.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” She smiled at the man in front of her, her heart fluttering with every breath she took. “Thank you, Dr. Cullen.”

“Please, call me Carlisle,” he smiled. “Now, why don’t you continue resting, and whatever you need just call. My office is right down the hall, I’ll be here in no time.”

The girl stared at the retreating form of his body and covered the heat that was rising to her face with her pillow. The butterflies in her stomach had made her uneasy and had her hands shaking. She didn’t understand why she was feeling this way. It had only been a week since her first encounter with the doctor, but those few seconds were enough to have her drooling over the man like a lovesick schoolgirl.

A few days had come and gone quickly. (Y/N) had grown attached to Carlisle, seeing and talking to him every day had felt like a dream. In his free time, she would go over to his office and pick a book to read, which they talked about the next day. They spent hours talking about nothing and everything.

It had been a long time since Carlisle had felt this way, centuries. Being around her had gotten easier each day that passed. Her smell becoming comforting instead of a trigger to the endless hunger for human blood – he’d never had a simple drop of it, but nothing could explain how much he wanted to have hers. Getting to know her had been a welcomed activity by the young doctor. He could spend days upon days listening to the sweet sound of her voice, admiring her curious-filled face when she started a new book – which she read swiftly, taking only a couple of hours to finish most of them.

“Can’t believe you have so many first editions, and you leave them at work.” She ran her hand across the spine of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. “I would keep them in a well-preserved chamber, and no one would be able to even breathe on them.”

Carlisle smiled as the girl gawked once again at his book collection. It wasn’t hard to acquire first edition novels when you were alive when they were published. “If you’re impressed by this collection, you’d be completely astonished by the one I have back home.”

“You have more?!” He nodded. The girl shined like a kid on Christmas, her eyes gleaming at the thought of a big library. “Oh, that sounds like a dream.”

“You’re more than welcome to come over any time. It’s always refreshing to meet a literature aficionado such as myself.”

“Really? That’d be amazing!” She grinned brightly. “I could spend all day reading, forget about work.”

The duo laughed. “Too late to withdraw the application but you’re always welcome to pass your downtime in my office.”

“Sounds like a plan,’’ she smiled. “Now, doctor, what will you ever do now that I’m not going to be here every day?”

“Oh, how will I ever go on?” He chuckled. “But if you ever need help during that time, just come by. My office is always open. And hopefully, you’ll visit from time to time on personal time.”

“I’m sure it’s something that can be arranged.”

If there was still blood rushing through his veins, the capillaries in his face would have widened. He felt like he now understood Edward; how being with her made him feel human again. And there was nothing more that he wanted than to take their friendship to another level, but he wasn’t sure if she would ever feel the same. Carlisle knew that she was unaware of the supernatural since (Y/N) had allowed him to be in her life. But what would happen once she knew everything? How could he ever come between her and her family?

“Miss Uley, your mother is here,” a nurse spoke up, peeking her head through the office door. “Discharge papers have already been filed.”

“Thank you, Nurse Dalen. She’ll be out in a moment.” Carlisle smiled.

“Well, the time has come.” (Y/N) took her phone out of her back pocket and handed it to the doctor. He looked at her with a question-ridden gaze. “I’m gonna need your phone number so we can arrange any future endeavors.”

“Right,” he laughed, typing his number into her directory. “I’ll be waiting for that call.”

“I’ll be making it soon enough,” she grinned. “I’m gonna go now. I’ll see you around, Cullen.”

“I’ll see you, Uley.”

She left the office with a huge smile on her face, holding her phone close to her chest. For the first time, she was experiencing something she had heard of most of her teenage years. Once she had met Carlisle all she wanted to do was get to know him better, spend her time with him, just being near him would suffice. It was the first time she was learning what falling for someone was, and even though it was scary, she was jumping in headfirst.

“Hi, honey. Ready to go home?” Allison hugged her daughter for the first time in five days. (Y/N) nodded, truly ready to finally sleep on her own bed.

“So, how are you liking Dr. Cullen?”

“MOM!” Allison laughed at her daughter’s reaction. It was easy to see that (Y/N) had taken a liking to Carlisle Cullen, and vice versa.

“What, darling? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.”

“It’s not like that, mom.”

“But you’d like it to be like that.”

“I’m not talking about that with my mother.” (Y/N) placed her cold hands on her cheeks, trying to cool down the warm blood that had rushed onto her cheeks. The cool air of the car’s A/C was only helping her so much.

“I just want you to be careful with that, honey. He’s older than you, technically has kids, and rumor has it he is married.”

A breath hitched in her throat. Married? She knew he had adopted five kids, most of them her age, but not that he was married. Had she read the situation wrong? He didn’t wear a ring, he didn’t mention any relationship, he had no pictures of a woman in his office. Then again, they had only spent five days together at the hospital. She didn’t know what he did when he went home at night, who he went home to at night. (Y/N) shouldn’t feel betrayed—they weren’t anything, and they weren’t on track to become anything.

“Don’t worry, mom. I’ve just been picking his brain about working in the hospital, and he’s been helping me with what I’m gonna be doing this summer.”

“Oh, have you decided what you want to do?”

“I’m gonna get my medical assistant certification. It’s a three-month course then I can work at the hospital.”

“That’s great, honey.” Allison smiled at her daughter from the driver’s side. “Is that where you’d see yourself making a career?”

“Not sure. I want to take this time to see if life in a hospital is truly where I’d like to work – see if medical school would be it for me.”

(Y/N) hadn’t taken the time to focus on her future. In her high school career, she spent her time focusing on the present and piling on as much as she could, and now she had no sense of direction. She would take every day as it came, hoping one day she would find her purpose.

Finally, back home, she hopped off the truck and stretched out her limbs, stiff from the days on a hospital bed. Taking a deep breath of fresh air and basking in the afternoon sun. The cold that had seeped into her bones from the hospital melted off, and she smiled feeling the warmth surround her.

“Why don’t you go upstairs, honey?” Allison told her daughter. “There’s a surprise waiting for you in your room.”

(Y/N) smiled and quickly made her way up the stairs to see what her mom meant. Opening the door, tears forming in her eyes. Her room had done a 180-degree turn. The walls had been painted a light beige color, and plants hung from the walls bringing warmth to the room. The bed was adorned with a white cover, and a fluffy duvet to keep her warm at night. A wooden frame sat atop the bed dressed in white linen and ivy vines. A bookcase lived in the corner of her room, filled to the brim with her collection of hardbacks and peppered with potted plants. Opposite the bed was a small desk with a dark green suede chair, her laptop set up in the workspace. Her room finally felt like hers.

“Do you like it, honey?”

“Mom, did you do this?”

“I wish I could take credit, but your brother and your friend Paul came over when I was at work and redecorated. I was actually surprised that they even came over.”

“I’ll have to thank them,” (Y/N) grinned. Even though their relationship was strained at the moment, and she had yet to see Paul since coming back, she was glad that they had taken time out of their days to do this for her. “I’ll go over to Sam’s house for a bit, maybe now he’ll have time to see me.”

“Why don’t you go tomorrow, honey? You should take it easy.”

“I feel a lot better, mom. You don’t have to worry too much.”

“I’m your mother, I’ll always worry. If you’re gonna go out, go see Jacob. He was really worried about you.”

“I will.”

(Y/N) kissed her mother’s cheek and grabbed her bag to head out. Her first stop was to the Black residence. Jacob saw her coming down the street and ran out to wrap her in a hug. When she collapsed last week, he had been very concerned when she collapsed in his garage. Jacob was glad that she had made a full recovery and was now back home, with minimum side effects showing. The visit was short, only a quick hello to ensure the boy that she was okay.

After spending some time with Jacob, she walked towards Sam’s house – she hoped to catch Paul there too since she had heard he now spent his time there alongside Jared Cameron. It hadn’t clicked in her head why Paul would ever hang out with her brother and Jared. Even when they were back in middle school, he never paid them any mind, having a separate friend group. She had only become his friend by spending time with him away from school, and her brother had always disliked them together, claiming he was a bad influence.

Outside of the small house, (Y/N) could hear the low chatter of manly voices, a higher-pitched one joining after. There was no mistaking that Sam was home. She started feeling nervous as she raised her hand to knock on the door. The shaky limb was able to make contact with the blue door twice before it opened wide open, revealing a shirtless Paul Lahote.

“(Y/N)?” He questioned. Paul knew she was back, but Sam had given him clear instructions to stay away from her due to their situation.

“Hey, Paul. Long time no see, huh?” The girl smiled at her friend that now towered over her. A few years ago, they were still of the same stature, but too much time had passed since then. She went in for a hug, and Paul cut it short – worried she might note his burning temperature. “Is Sam home?”

“Uh, yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck, turning towards the kitchen. “Sam! (Y/N)’s here.”

The older male appeared in front of them, a soft smile playing on his lips. “Hey, (Y/N). Good to see you’re doing better. What brings you around?”

“I just wanted to thank you both for what you did in my room. Mom told me you worked on it while we were away. It’s a dream.” Sam smiled at his younger sister and shared a hug with the smaller girl.

“I’m glad you liked it, (Y/N). We wanted to give you a place where you could rest better after the accident. It’s the least we could do.” The alpha could hear the duo that was left in the kitchen had grown curious about who was at the door. “Do you want to come in for a bit?”

“Are you really inviting me in?” (Y/N) was taken aback – the last thing she thought was that she would get that invitation.

“Yeah, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Sam responded, keeping his doubts of the encounter to himself.

(Y/N) walked through the threshold and instantly felt the warm aura that emanated from inside of the house. It was a welcoming environment that she had grown to love from her own mother’s house. She walked behind Sam, Paul following behind them. `There was nothing that could prepare her to the sight she was met with.

In front of her stood a beautiful woman. She had tan skin, long black hair, and a beautiful smile. But there was something that stood out to her, something she was sure stood out to everyone – three long gashes ran through the front of her face. Yet, they didn’t distract from the alluring atmosphere that surrounded her. Sam moved to her side, and (Y/N) quickly connected the dots and figured that was Emily Young. The Uley girl wanted to be indifferent to her presence, knowing how one of her friends had been hurt by the union in front of her, she couldn’t help but note the love that radiated from the pair. It had been a long time since she had seen her brother as happy as he looked as he stared at his fiancé.

“(Y/N), it’s an honor to finally meet you.” Emily stretched out her hand towards the girl, which (Y/N) gladly took. “Sam has told me so much about you.”

“I wish I could say the same,” (Y/N) joked. “Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to get to know each other more. I’d love to get to know the woman my brother is set to marry.”

“I’m sure we’ll have enough time now that you’re back.” Emily smiled and grabbed a basket filled with muffins, offering them to the girl. (Y/N) gladly took the baked good in her hand, picking at it and placing the piece in her mouth – a wonderful taste that quickly melted in her mouth. “You’re welcome over any time. Any family of Sam is family to me.”

“Thank you, Emily. I’ll be sure to take you up on that.”

Not much time passed before Sam had cut the meeting short, claiming there was something important the duo had to do. “We should do this another time, (Y/N). Paul and I have to go.”

“Go where?” (Y/N) questioned. “It’s already night, not much to do.”

“I can’t really tell you, sis. But it’s important.”

“So still guarding secrets?” Sam shrugged. “It’s fine, Sam. I’m growing used to it.”

“(Y/N)…”

“I can take a hint, Sam. I know when I’m not wanted,” (Y/N) smiled. “Thank you for the muffins, Emily. They were divine. I’ll be sure to take you up on that offer and visit sometime soon.”

“Of course, (Y/N). I’m sorry we had to cut this short.”

“It’s okay. I’ll see you guys.” (Y/N) took her bag and exited the house. She was confused on why Sam had welcomed her in only to have her leave soon after – there was something big he was hiding, and she needed to find out what it was.

“(Y/N), wait up!” Paul jogged up to her, turning her around. “Look, I hope you understand that we’re not trying to push you away on purpose. There are things that Sam is protecting you from.”

“Like what, Paul? What danger could possibly be surrounding us that he would stray from his family?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s not my place to tell you, (Y/N). As much as I hate keeping this from you, Sam would not allow it to come from anyone but himself.”

“Are you serious? What kind of power does he have over you?”

“PAUL!” Sam shouted, gaining the attention of his beta. “Let’s go.”

“I’m sorry, (Y/N). I hope one day you’ll forgive us.” Paul kissed her forehead and went to meet up with his alpha.

(Y/N) stood still as she watched their bodies disappear into the woods. She debated whether to follow them for a brief second, but she was exhausted. She left back home with a million questions running through her head. The pair of Sam and Paul was a strange view, and she was determined to get to the bottom of things.

When she got home, (Y/N) noticed her mother asleep on the couch, the tv in front of her still playing. The years that passed were clear on her face, the worry that she carried for both her children plastered in the lines of her face. She could see the exhaustion that she held, years of caring for two kids by herself taking a toll on her. (Y/N) grabbed a blanket and laid it on top of her mother’s body, making sure that she was warm during the night. She left a kiss on her cheek, thankful for everything her mother had sacrificed for her.

After showering the day off, (Y/N) changed into her pajamas and laid in bed staring at her phone’s screen. She thought if she stared at it long enough a message would magically pop up. Minutes passed and her phone kept silent, not a single notification appearing on the screen. She scrolled through her directory until it landed on the newest listing. Carlisle Cullen, it read. Her finger clicked on it and selected new message.

Her fingers danced atop the keyboard of her phone, no words coming to her mind to send to the doctor. Should she even send him a message? What if he truly was married? She would never want to come between a couple. But her fingers did not follow her thought train. Unconsciously, they started typing away a message and before she could analyze her actions, she sent the message.

Hi, Carlisle. It’s (Y/N). I made it home okay and don’t have any symptoms, seems like you fixed me up! Anyways, wanted to know if you possibly had some free time this weekend to join me for some dinner at La Bella Italia. Hope you had a good rest of the day at work!

Her jaw fell when her screen read message sent. There was no way to delete it now. It was out there, and it would make its way to his phone. (Y/N)’s head fell onto her pillow and muffled a scream that escaped from her throat. This feeling was alien to her, and she was learning what steps to take to grow closer to the astonishing man. Minutes felt like an eternity to (Y/N), thinking that she had imploded the friendship she had built with the man over the past week.

Beep.

The sound from her phone caught her attention. She scrambled for her phone and quietly shrieked at the words on her screen.

Hello, (Y/N). I’m glad you’re feeling better, hopefully, no symptoms will arise once more. And I did have a good day at work, although I missed our afternoon book chats. I have a free day on Sunday. Tell me a time and I can meet you in Port Angeles. Hope that day is good for you.

“He said yes. If he were actually married, he wouldn’t have said yes,” she thought.

So, she typed back.

I’m glad you had a good day, and the book chats have an easy fix. I’m just a phone call away. As for Sunday, it’s a perfect day. I think around 5:30 would be a good time for dinner. Let me know if it works.

Sent.

Seconds later, another beep.

I’ll make sure to schedule those calls then. 5:30 sounds perfect. I’ll see you there. Have a good night, (Y/N).

See you then, Carlisle. Good night. 😊

(Y/N) smiled at her phone, joy wanting to burst from her body. She was reveling in this new feeling and the happiness it brought her. If it was Carlisle, it was worth it, she believed.

That night she went to sleep with the biggest smile she had experienced in her life. Unbeknownst to the life-changing moments that were to follow this meeting.

Tag List: @daniallh @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @imaginetwilight2704 @jessicas-undrground @hey-you-therexo @mauvette268 @mxyee @beefwhobarksandisalilmadalot

[therealvinelle]

I actually wanted breaking dawn to be about the hardships of being a vampire and more vampire drama. Not jacob and no baby plot.

I’ve seen that sentiment around a lot, it seems 95% of fandom agrees with you. It would have been a very different book, though, so who’s to say if it would have been better or worse.

… I say that, but no baby plot would have meant no storyline where Jacob imprints on an infant. Alright, so the hypothetical Breaking Dawn would have had a solid leg up on the original.

But, imprinting storyline aside, I personally like the baby plot. It gave us a story. Without Renesmée I just don’t see what there would have been for our main characters to do for an entire book, you know? The Cullens are such a big and powerful coven that any threat short of the Volturi won’t suffice. Remove the baby plot, and my opinion is that the story’s conflict would have to be personal conflicts, as the Cullens are all contained with a newborn Bella, and we get this bottle episode style book that’s these dysfunctional people realising just how much buried conflicts lies in the family.

Except, that’s not at all the kind of novel Meyer was interested in writing, and probably not what fans wanted either. Plus, there’s been no build up in previous books - sure, it could br done, but this book would stick out as an even more sore thumb than the baby ridden OG Breaking Dawn did.

At least that’s how I see things, probably worth noting I type this on phone on the train, but you get my drift. I don’t think Bella being a vampire is enough to carry a book, you need more. And I’m not sure what that could be.

[theinheriteddutchess]

The fact that Amun doesn't let Kebi touch renesmee, that woman is stuck with this man forever against her will isn't she? Kebi makes no decisions of her own, just sad.

I was having a horrible thought about the Egyptian coven looking like a family, well they're doing it better than the cullens!

People can look alike, skin type, features, sure but that doesn't mean they instantly look like a family. Going to a country and pointing to people doing their shopping and saying "behold a family!" Will get you some stares...

I thought of the amazones as well! "Feline" "long" it feels a little animalistic, grotesque? Less civilized?! You're right about "other" bella doesn't just think their life style are different, no they are different. James and Co were nomadic, wild, but they weren't uncivilized, they weren't grotesque. I think meyer wanted exotic but it's easy to stop being exotic and become an attraction or stop being seen as a person.

Laurent was going to kill her, she wasn't as afraid, Victoria was hunting her she wasn't as afraid, but now she is afraid of someone who traveled all this way to help you and your family, offers help to train you, there are more unwilling vampires there and bella refuses because she's terrified of someone who had not hurt anyone?

Bella looks very sheltered but also stubborn, and isn't very good at asking or receiving help from women. Perhaps if zafrina had been a man...

Oh God the explanation of the skin, I just realized I never saw all of the vampire pale. People live all over the world and vary in life, but with some I just read them how I thought they would look like.. not whitened.

But that explanation (put out to silence the debate I bet) makes it worse. It doesn't even make sense. Also if venom burns away all pigment they're eyes shouldn't even be red either. It should perhaps be milky white. Then go all out white! No eye or hair color either. Grey?

(Funny in the movie Rosalie kept her mole, not removed by venom)

Look I bet I have many opinions or non-opinions about this series others will disagree with, and sometimes I don't even look at things the same way, but l think discussing this is so interesting, sometimes it changes the way I see things, sometimes I see a point and sometime I shrug and think okay it is what it is. Sometimes I've never thought about it.

Like jasper, he was in the army was all I knew. I didn't know one thing about being a confederate soldier, it was army. So people being against jasper I didn't understand at all, it is very recent to me.

I also don't mind people liking something I don't, I don't automatically think pepple are bad for liking a fictional character, but it is important to discuss these things. Real life is different than fiction.

And fiction is good to discuss and find things out and think about and learn.

I'm writing a lot and I often get side tracked, sorry but I love discussing things haha. And I like your posts because they are interesting and often funny and well spoken (as opposed to me jumping all over the place!)

ok Twilight fam time to do what we do best: ignore canon

[1237tnb]

BELLA AND JACOB'S BULLSHIT RELATIONSHIP.

Forgive me for anything, I spell wrong.

I don't consider myself to be a woke person. I usually give people the grace of being people, making mistakes, learning and growing from them.

However, since it's a few months from 2022, I do want to discuss how depressing Eurocentric, oppressive and painfully cliche Twiligut was. Specifically, Bella and Jacob's relationship.

I, for, one was never team Jacob. I was team Edward all day everyday. By the end of the second book of Breaking Dawn, Jacob was my new favorite character and I was a hard-core Blackwater shipper.

So, let's breakdown Bella and Jacob's relationship. It began as a toxic friendship in New Moon in which one friend, Jacob was hard-core simping for his friend Bella who was not simpibg for him. It's not an ideal friendship, but it is a part of growing up and learning about love, so no biggie.

Bella and Jacob's relationship becomes offensively oppressive and one sided in Book 3 of Breaking Dawn once Jacob imprints on Renesmee.

Bella was always a selfish character. She was selfish for wanting to have her cake and eat it to. She was selfish for wanting to keep Jacob around, because he was always there for her, while knowing that she was always going to choose Edward. If she was a good friend, she would have put her own feelings aside and cut Jacob off for good.

So, how does Stephanie Meyers write around this? She has Jacob imprint on Renesmee. She has Jacob imprint on the very type of dangerous creature that his pack was sworn to protect the Quilite people from.

And it's not as though Renesmee herself is dangerous, she is not. It's that both her existence and the Cullen's close proximity to La Push places these Native American tribes on the Rez in the way of constant danger.

However, according to Alice's vision in the 5th movie, Jacob is so blindly in love (pedophilia and grooming) with and enslaved to this hybrid infant that he, a Native American man, would allow his entire village, tribe, pack, and family to be destroyed to save one little white baby.

Now, do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with saving Caucasian people in ordinary circumstances. The issue was that Jacob was expected to give up everything ans betray everyone for the safety of one infant simply because his white female best friend asked him to, even though she would never give him the same consideration.

In Alice's vision, when Jacob's pack who so loyally followed him is being slaughtered, Leah cries out for help from her alpha after Seth is killed and Jacob who doesn't fight at all, keeps running with Renesmee in hand. He doesn't turn around to help Leah and protect the village from the Voltaire. He just leaves.

Meanwhile, all of his fellow pack members who are there and Sam's pack members are present and fighting truly to awe there families and ancestral homes.

In the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, Jacob was essentially reduced to the benevolent slave. His will power is completely removed so that he can be in service to the main character, and he, a POC, is reduced to nothing more than a large guard dog that comes when called. Even the Voltaire picked up on this and were astute in their observation.

The observation that the wolf pack was merely a tool that would gain nothing from fighting ans potentially loose everything. However, the wolf packs themselves were disposable for the sake of saving Renesmee.

So, who is to blame for this? Not Edward, not the Cullens, not Jacob, nor Sam, and not Renesmee.

The only people to blame for this are Stephanie Meyers for writing a story in which she boiled down an entire group of people's existence to nothing more than a utilitarian use.

And Bella Swan. Bella Swan may be a good wife to Edward, but she was always a shitty friend to Jacob. She was a bad friend to Jacob long before he even turned into a wolf. She weaponized his love for her time and time again to get her way at Jacob's expense. Then, she had the audacity to ask Jaocb to betray his entire family for her best interest.

Stephanie Meyer's essentially castrated and chained the most powerful wolf of the Quilite people by withholding and weaponizing sex. Though, she did it in a more censored way. This was not an uncommon way European settlers once colonized and enslaved. In the islands. Overseers used to choose the largest, most powerful slave who the other slaves respected and listened to the most. They would then tie him to a post and rape him violently in front of all of his people, in order to emasculat him and gain control of the whole group.

Now, you might say that Breaking Dawn is different, but let's play Breaking Dawn out a few years.

The Cullens move back to Alaska. Jacob can't be without Renesmee so he has no choice but to go with them. However, he can't stand the smell of the vampires, so instead of living inside the Cullens' Manor with dignity, he has to sleep outside like a dog or in some shed far off in the woods.

All, the while, he has no choice but to forfeit his own responsibilities of protecting his people, so that he can instead forever protect the Cullens, never being allowed to grow old and die.

[cto10121]

Twilight Meta—Chapter 14-16

In which Edward gives his and his families vampiric backstories (abbreviated, of course), the lovers share a bed together platonically, and once again Edward does things that both are and should be illegal…and not in a legal or moral sense either. Spoilers bien sûr

Chapter 14: Edward Vampire Splains, Bosses, And Stalks.

With obvious edits and elusions, as we know from the previous books. But the gist is correct.

He drove one-handed, holding my hand on the seat. Sometimes he gazed into the setting sun, sometimes he glanced at me—my face, my hair blowing out the open window, our hands twined together.

What a nice image. That’s all. No thoughts, head empty.

“I was born in Chicago in 1901…Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, and dying of the Spanish influenza.”

Would have been nice to have seen that flashback in the movie, but budget concerns. Anyway, this is the real appeal of vampires for me: Hundreds of years old, privy to all kinds of history! But of course it’s all about the teen angst and romance. I do like how Meyer’s vampires do ring believably immortal, or at least have universal personalities that fit in most every time. Most TV and movie vampires are so unbelievably modern, it’s sickening. I’d prefer too old-fashioned vampires than too modern.

“Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. I didn’t realize till much later that he was hoping she would be to me what Esme was to him—he was careful with his thoughts around me.” He rolled his eyes. “But she was never more than a sister. It was only two years later that she found Emmett…She carried him back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn’t be able to do it herself. I’m only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for her.”

Is it me or Edward gives much more slack to Rosalie in this book than in Midnight Sun? Then again, they have a typically bickering brother and sister relationship there.

“Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place.”

Friendly reminder that the Cullens don’t always enroll in high school. I’ve heard some antis bitching about that.

“I was curious about you.”

“You spied on me?” But somehow I couldn’t infuse my voice with the proper outrage. I was flattered.

He was unrepentant. “What is there to do at night?”

Oh, no. This is so creepy, you guys. He stalked her and watched her as she sleeps. I am so appalled at this anti-feminist messaging. What kind of message is this sending to our impressionable youth—

Yeah, no, I don’t care, lol. Seriously, he’s a freakin’ vampire. Ergo—vampire shit. The same clowns who cry at Edward sparkling in the sun because “vampires don’t sparkle!!!1!1” are also up in arms about this. Creepy Vampire Stalker? Doesn’t even have the same ring as Creepy Italian Stalker. I know Edward is supposed to be the good ones, but he is still a bad boy vampire. He killed people in the past, Karen.

“You’re interesting when you sleep.” He spoke matter-of-factly. “You talk.”

“No!” I gasped, heat flooding my face all the way to my hairline. […]

“Are you angry with me?”

“That depends!” I felt and sounded like I’d had the breath knocked out on me.

He waited.

“On?” he urged.

“What you heard!” I wailed.

Bella is more upset over Edward hearing her love confession than his watching her. Might as well. Bella isn’t the type for guilt or shame, but she does want to keep the depths of her obsession with him as secret as possible. Give it up, Bells, it’s obvious to anyone with a brain. At least when Juliet finds out Romeo heard her love confession, she was mortified too, but decides to…just own it. Bella doesn’t play hard-to-get either.

“You did say my name,” he admitted.

I sighed in defeat. “A lot?”

“How much do you mean by ‘a lot,’ exactly?”

CACKLING. Would have loved Pattinson to have delivered that line.

He pulled me against his chest, softly, naturally.

“Don’t be self-conscious,” he whispered in my ear. “If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I’m not ashamed of it.”

Edward being sweet and lovely right after confessing he watches her sleep is just…peak Edward. *chomps on movie popcorn* This cock is really something else.

Anyhoo, Charlie returns and he is more observant than usual. Well, Bella is visibly very excited and agitated.

“None of the boys in town your type, eh?” He was suspicious, but trying to play it cool.

“No, none of the boys have caught my eye yet.” I was careful not to over-emphasize the word boys in my quest to be truthful with Charlie.

Bah, weak equivocation. While Edward is not a boy mentally, he is still seventeen physically and presents as such. Charlie would still call BS. Juliet did so much better getting her mother off her scent. Do better, Bells.

“Edward?” I whispered, feeling completely idiotic.

The quiet, laughing response came from behind me. “Yes?”

I whirled, one hand flying to my throat in surprise.

He lay, smiling hugely, across my bed, his hands behind his head, his feet dangling off the end, the picture of ease.

Now this is actual problematic shit Edward does. Bella, you have his ticket to ride. Ride before the stallion moves!

“Can I have a minute to be human?” I asked.

…I’m beginning to see the anti rationale of Bella being too dumb to function.

Well, no? she does have to put on a show for a suspicious Charlie and also make herself clean. Priorities and practicalities and all. But damn, she has ovaries of steel.

Too late to regret not packing the Victoria’s Secret silk pajamas my mother got me two birthdays ago, which still had the tags on them in a drawer somewhere back home. (p. 298)

Aaaaand I stand corrected. She’s literally thinking about putting on sexy lingerie for her vampire boyfriend. This series is literally so real.

I pulled back; as I moved, he froze—and I could no longer hear the sound of his breathing. […]

“Did I do something wrong?”

Yes, Edward, it’s you. You’re a slut created by a hetero red-blooded woman. A male Carmen or Salome. An homme fatal.

“No—the opposite. You’re driving me crazy,” I explained.

He considered that briefly, and when he spoke, he sounded pleased. “Really?”

Like Bella, like Edward! R&J really should serve them copyright infringement papers.

“But jealousy…it’s a strange thing. So much more powerful than I would have thought. And irrational! Just now, when Charlie asked you about that vile Mike Newton…” He shook his head angrily. […]

“But honestly,” I teased, “for that to bother you, after I have to hear that Rosalie—Rosalie, the incarnation of pure beauty, Rosalie—was meant for you. Emmett or no Emmett, how can I compete with that?”

Ha, legit. Mike is the Paris, and Rosalie is the…Rosaline? Holy shit, that’s close. Now it’s Shakespeare’s turn to serve copyright infringement papers.

He was serious now, thoughtful. “For almost ninety years I’ve walked among my kind, and yours…all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren’t alive yet.”

Every so often the antis bitch about Edward remaining a virgin for ninety years, but honestly? Ninety years isn’t that long for a vampire. I mean, that’s just the 20th century. He doesn’t even remember the Victorian era. Edward is definitely among the younger side. The Volturi especially must have viewed him as a wee bby. Look at him, finding his lil’ cantante, aw. If he were 200+ years, yeah, I’d call bullshit.

“I thought you were desensitized.”

“Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,” he whispered. “You have a very floral smell, like lavender…or freesia,” he noted. “It’s mouthwatering.” (p. 306)

Lavender: Happiness, love, devotion, peace, distrust. Freesia: Innocence, thoughtfulness. All in all, very apropos. Bella smells like life, in other words—also, there is her maidenly innocence.

(Also, come to think of it, by contrast, Bella doesn’t describe Edward’s scent all that clearly. I have a feeling it must be something similar. Sweet is the main adjective. Probably something cold per Jacob’s reaction).

“Carlisle has a theory…he believes that we all bring something of our strongest human traits with us into the next life, where they are intensified—like our minds, our senses.”

It is a cool idea. I mean, still makes these vampires overpowered as hell and everything, but it’s still cool. These vampires in many ways are like twisted anti-angels—like Adam and Eve before and after their fall. It’s a neat reversal.

Chapter 15: Meeting the Vampire In-Laws, the Infamous Khaki Skirt, and Vampire Baseball

“Edward! You stayed!” I rejoiced, and thoughtlessly threw myself across the room and into his lap. […]

He laughed.

“Of course,” he answered, startled, but seeming pleased by my reaction. His hands rubbed my back.

Book Edward and Bella: 🥰🥰🥰🥰

Movie Edward and Bella: *stare, no thoughts, head empty*

I hid my face against his shoulder.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“You are my life now,” he answered simply.

Love declaration at page 314! Very fitting and intense. And oh, here it goes…

I ended up in my only skirt—long, khaki-colored, still casual. I put on the dark blue blouse he’d once complimented. […]

“Okay.” I bounced down the stairs. “I’m decent.”

He was waiting at the foot of the stairs, closer than I’d thought, and I bounded right into him. He steadied me, holding me a careful distance away for a few seconds before suddenly pulling me closer.

“Wrong again,” he murmured in my ear. “You are utterly indecent—no one should look so tempting, it’s not fair.”

THE INFAMOUS KHAKI SCENE. The clownery this one scene incurred…all because Tumblr misread “khaki-colored” as “khaki” the material. Also that weird out-of-nowhere headcanon of it being ankle or floor length. And I thought R&J clownery was bad…

Anyway, if this weren’t a scene from a YA novel, this would definitely have led to a sex scene. Gives off major “bodice ripper energy.” I’ll be disappointed if there wasn’t a saucy fanfic AU on this alone.

“Look, I’m trying really hard not to think about what I’m about to do, so can we go already?” I asked.

“And you’re worried, not because you’re headed to meet a houseful of vampires, but because you think those vampires won’t approve of you, correct?”

“That’s right,” I answered immediately, hiding my surprise at his casual use of the word.

He shook his head. “You’re incredible.”

Bella being into that shit Part 39374782.

Anyway, there is the scene with Bella and the Cullens, the Cullens being all “do not startle the human!” and then Alice coming in all “BELLA MY BFF muah” 🤪. (Love Alice, always will). I’ll skip around a bit unfortunately because my wrists are killing me, but I’ll just highlight a few moments.

I suddenly remembered my childhood fantasy that, should I ever win a lottery, I would buy a grand piano for my mother. She wasn’t really good—she only played for herself on our secondhand upright—but I loved to watch her play. She was happy, absorbed—she seemed like a new, mysterious being to me then, someone outside the “mom” persona I took for granted.

Bella’s love for her mother always rings true. And of course, it informs her choice to help her.

“You inspired this one,” he said softly. The music grew unbearably sweet.

Bella’s Lullaby. Never particularly liked the version for the movie (hell, I don’t even remember it). My toxic trait is that I headcanon Bella’s song as Belle. Yes, that Belle.

“I have to, because I’m going to be a little…overbearingly protective over the next few days—or weeks—and I wouldn’t want you to think I’m naturally a tyrant.”

Literally all the antis and even half the Twilight fandom think you are the worst of the worst of tyrant. My take? I’ve literally read alpha male leads (including classic lit characters—oh, yeah) way more toxic. Hell, even Shadow and Bone’s Mal is worse and he’s just a regular Joe. Edward is a kitten compared to them. If anything, he is almost as much as a pushover as Bella in some respects. The rest is just your basic typical 1900s trad boy with control issues.

In any case, this is first reference to James, Victoria, and Laurent in the book. The movie decided to introduce them early on and trying to build a little mystery over missing hikers and whatnot. But that didn’t work because the movie just showed us who was eating the hikers anyway, so no mystery. So there was no point to it—maybe just to appease the antis that whine about how there is no plot until they come along? (Ma’am, this is a romance novel).

I shivered.

“Finally, a rational response!” he murmured. “I was beginning to think you had no sense of self-preservation at all.”

Yeah, Bella does. She just has a disease called Being in Love. Not contagious, fortunately, but extremely common. The lengths she will go to for the vampire dick is inspiring.

Chapter 16: Carlisle and More Vampire Lore, and Vampire Baseball

Anyway, Edward then moves on to Carlisle’s backstory feat. actual Carlisle. Very interesting and oh, he was born just a few decades shy of actually being at the Globe theater in its heyday. (Not that Carlisle’s father as a Protestant would ever allow him near the playhouses, those dens of iniquity!!!). It’s just possible he may have seen revivals of Shakespeare’s plays…and then gotten whipped by his Protestant father as punishment. But ignore me, I’m a Shakespeare nerd. Continuing on.

“Well, I had a typical bout of rebellious adolescence—about ten years after I was…born…created, whatever you want to call it. I wasn’t sold on his life of abstinence, and I resented him for curbing my appetite. So I went off on my own for a time.” (p. 343)

“Abstinence,” “appetite.” Interesting choice of words there. Also, Edward going into his Batman phase is now terribly ironic what with Pattinson recently donning the cape.

“But as time went on, I began to see the monster in my eyes. I couldn’t escape the debt of so much human life taken, no matter how justified.”

Would have loved to have had more of that rationale. I suppose I should reread Midnight Sun sometime. It’s very detailed though; Edward overthinks everything.

“I was prepared to feel…relieved. Having you know about everything, not needing to keep secrets from you. But I didn’t expect to feel more than that. I like it. It makes me…happy.” He shrugged, smiling slightly.

Friendly reminder that Edward lies and has lied only to Bella when he has to re: vampire secret society. He is still keeping Alice’s vision of her as a vampire from her, but that’s par de course. Bella has to choose that destiny for herself.

[awesome-rayne101-universe]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer, Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Alice Cullen/Bella Swan, Edward Cullen/Jasper Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Didyme/Marcus (Twilight), Athenodora/Caius (Twilight), Aro/Sulpicia (Twilight), Renée Dwyer/Charlie Swan Characters: Bella Swan, Alice Cullen, Cullen Family, Original Cullen Character(s), Edgar John Brandon (Twilight), Lillian Brandon, Cynthia Brandon, James (Twilight), Victoria (Twilight), The Volturi (Twilight) Additional Tags: Character Death, Minor Character Death, Vampires, References to Fried Green Tomatoes, Memory Loss, Non-Consensual Electroconvulsive Therapy, Bella's POV, POV First Person Summary:

AU story-time. Alice and Bella grow up together in Biloxi Mississippi after a "hunting accident" befalls Bella's family in Arizona. The pair fall in love but have no time to tell each other before Alice is shipped off to The Asylum where she loses her memory. Bella never sees Alice again until many years later. The pixie vampire doesn't remember her old childhood friend/crush but seeing her face stirs something in her. What could it be?

Or I suck at summaries but I wanted to try a Fried Green Tomatoes-esc fanfiction.

[phases--ofthemoon]

PHASES: SYNOPSIS, CHARACTERS, & BACKGROUND INFO

Emerson Blake a native to the southern east coast finds herself a long way from the only home she ever knew. With the loss of her only close family and living parent, her mother, Emerson packs up what remains of her life and heads for the pacific north west where her father grew up. Hoping for a fresh start and a new place to call home Emerson finds way more than she could have ever imagined and after meeting a handsome young man named Jacob Black she’ll discover that this small town is hiding many secrets and where there is light there is also dark.

Emerson Blake - Female, 19 about to turn 20 October 17th, Dirty blonde Curly hair, brown eyes. Short petite, but athletic body type. Fair skin but slightly sun kissed.

Takes place 3 years after breaking dawn finished. Jacob never imprinted on Renesmee or anyone else. Quill also never imprinted on Claire, he imprinted on a different girl his own age. No imprinting on children in this story.

Jacob has graduated high school and works as a local mechanic in forks. He has kept in contact with the Cullens and helped save Bella and Renesmee from his pack as well as the Volturi out of his love for Bella but he has accepted that she has a new life and he has done his best to move on. Since then (Breaking Dawn) he doesn’t see them often. Jake does not leave Sam's pack they are able to work out their differences and concerns before it gets to that point.

Jacobs last concern is finding love or imprinting. He assumes now it will never happen and he’s okay with it. He’s decided he’s had enough heart ache for a lifetime but when he meets Emerson everything changes whether he wants it to or not.

The Cullens have recently “Adopted” a new family member. A young man named Cade Gentry. He was turned at 21 years old, is from Louisiana has jet black hair and red eyes. He is not quite yet a vegetarian but doesn’t kill for sport (anymore). Lean but muscular, and tall. On the path for redemption which is why he has joined the Cullens coven. Alice had a vision of him needing help, needing guidance. Jasper knew him a long time ago before he met Alice. Like Jasper Cade has a bit of a dark past that he is now trying to put behind him. He's tired of the way he's been living, without purpose and without meaning. The Cullens believe in him and want to help, Alice trusts him as she can see being a part of their family will put him on a good path, for now. After being in Forks for a little while he stumbles upon Emerson and is immediately drawn to her what he doesn’t know she is already involved with someone else, his mortal enemy.

***I do not own original twilight characters, all twilight characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer***

[classy-stars]

Twilight

I recently re-watched The Twilight Saga and started reading Midnight Sun. I’m enjoying it don’t get me wrong but I feel like there’s some missed opportunities.

To start off with I’m a little bit disappointed that Midnight Sun is from Edwards perspective. I think it’s not too badly written and it’s an interesting view but it’s still the view of someone who is eternally 17. We’ve heard their story and giving another book about Edward and Bella is kind of re-iterating information, from another side. I think she wrote it for existing fans of Twilight but the fans of Twilight are generally all grown up and over 21 years old now, it’s a lot harder to relate to the story.

Now my main thing is I’m really hoping for a book on Carlisle that can touch on his backstory and him and Esme. It’s a very healthy relationship whereas Bella’s relationships with Edward and Jacob are arguably toxic and immature at times. Carlisle and Esme, being adults and having what is shown as a soft, true love type romance could be very fun to explore. I think if Stephanie Meyer doesn’t explore Carlisle it’s a missed opportunity. The man was a Pastor, with a Pastor for a father and it’s hinted he got turned for revenge against his father. It gives an opportunity to explore faith within vampirism. It’s hinted that he has retained some faith due to him saying that they are damned, but it doesn’t explore too much beyond that. It would be nice to see how dedicated he is to the faith still and if all vampires agree with this view or if it’s just him due to upbringing. You could explore him seeking redemption by working as a doctor and show that he’s trying to repent, you could explore if he feels any guilt or shame for his condition or if he has learnt to accept it.  I would like to see more Carlisle and Esme aswell, showing how they fell in love and her trying to accept new-found life after her newborn baby passed and show them taking Edward on as a son. You could show Rosalie after she was freshly turned and any resentment that she felt for it. She was taken advantage of by Men and then another man decided FOR HER that she should live eternally and I could imagine she lashed out at him for it for a while. It would also be cool to see HOW he escaped when he was first turned and to see some of his time with the Volturi. Have they always looked down on human? Did it happen over time? Is it in their nature? If so, why are the Cullens still so fond of humanity? Does it have to do with Carlisles Faith and morals? Did he have to convince anyone to care? I just think it’d be cool to explore his relationships and past because it goes a bit deeper and is more mature than the story that has been presented with Edward and Bella. It would also be a bit more relatable for fans that are out of Highschool and might relate more to his struggles. Just my opinion but I REALLY want it.  ** I am also salty about them cutting that Carlisle and Esme scene from Twilight? It’s cute and shows their dynamic as well as showing WHY Carlisle was so keen to help Edward protect Bella and why he wanted all family members to help.

[lalalalune]

Chapters: 8/? Fandom: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer, Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen Characters: Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Alice Cullen, Jasper Hale, Rosalie Hale, Emmett Cullen, Carlisle Cullen, Esme Cullen, Jacob Black, Charlie Swan, Jessica Stanley, Mike Newton, Angela Weber, Eric Yorkie, Seth Clearwater, James (Twilight), Victoria (Twilight) Additional Tags: twilight - Freeform, Fix-It, no the vampires do not sparkle, Twilight Renaissance, Canon Rewrite Summary:

In a world where creatures such as vampires and werewolves inhabit all the dark and secluded corners of every continent, one young woman named Bella will find herself strangely drawn to a handsome and strange boy at her new school named Edward, who seems drawn to her as well. As their relationship blossoms, Bella learns secrets that put her and her family in danger and finds herself facing a future that she never envisioned for herself: immortal vampire. Will she fight for the love she shares with Edward, or will she attempt to flee the dark world that now ensnares her?

Snippet: 

“Forks was so much smaller than my child mind had thought it was. Even in my teenage mind, I hadn’t properly conceptualized the inherent problems with living at the very edge of the world. I had fooled myself into believing it was close to Seattle and close to Vancouver and other, much more populated locations. 

Wrong. Forks was close to nothing, except for Olympic National Park and the Quileute Reservation. No drive in or out of the area was easy, which meant that if one wanted to leave for a while they needed to be damn sure about their decision. My mother never talked about her choice to leave when I was a toddler, but I now wondered if she would have left much sooner had that decision not involved several hours of driving on slick, winding mountain roads in semi-darkness with no cell service. 

It didn’t matter now. Charlie had picked me up from the airport and the journey was done. I was trapped by my own choice and I was determined to make the most of it.”

[scriptstructure]

How do I create a multispecies and interspecies society? One aspect I'm having issues with is varied lifespan and childhood. What is the parents lifespans are 80 and 800 and had a child at 40 and 770. Say that the child isn't an adult until 100 which means parents are dead. What if the only relatives have small lifespans and are they even obligated to accept the child (even if rhe child is older than them)? How does any other age related issue work.

This seems like a question that is more suited to @script-a-world than to me, since it seems like you’re working on figuring out the way that the society in your secondary world works, rather than figuring out how to portray it on the page.

I will say that all of the questions you’ve laid out up there are questions that you’ll need to explore for yourself to decide how you want your world to work, how you want your society to function, and how you want your characters to think about the world they live in.

Of course, there’s going to be some major differences between a world with such widely varied age ranges and our own world, but how exactly that works depends a great deal on the type of story you’re trying to tell, the kinds of characters that you want to have, etc.

Some books that I can think of that have societies with characters with widely varying age ranges:

-The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien: The most obvious one is the elves, who can be just about as old as the world itself, but even the Hobbits and Númenórean men have different lifespans to just regular old human people.

-Buffy the Vampire Slayer: There are multiple characters in the show, usually vampires, or demons (like Anya) who have lived for hundreds of years, and who have their own cultures alongside the human world.

-The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice: I find these books very interesting in the way that they handle characters who were born human but become long-lived through vampirism (or other means) and how the different characters process their extended lives.

-The Twilight Saga, Stephanie Meyer: The Cullen family have a very different lifestyle to the Volturi, but they’re all long-lived people amongst regular humans.

-The Black Jewels Trilogy*, Anne Bishop: This series has something which, with the brief description you’ve provided, sounds similar to what you’re working on. There are multiple human-ish races, with lifespans varying from your normal 80-ish up to 8000 years. There are a few characters who have managed to live (kinda posthumously?? It’s hard to explain without getting into the complex magic system) up to about 50,000 years. LIke with the Vampire Chronicles, there’s exploration of the ways that time differs for people with disparate lifespans, and also with romance between someone who is short-lived, and someone who is long-lived (extremely tragic!)

There are probably many many more books that deal with these kinds of concepts, and every one handles it slightly differently. I’d definitely suggest reading some books that have these themes and think about how you want to approach it in your story.

And that’s really what it comes down to in the end: what do you want to do with this concept in your story? How does this conceit change the way your world works?

I hope this helps!

*Content note for the Black Jewels Trilogy: contains strong sexual violence, body horror, and other violent themes which might be upsetting for some readers.

[therealvinelle]

Do you think anyone outside of the volturi will die in the renesmee/jacob book? who?

My thoughts on that book.

I absolutely can’t predict Meyer, so in short, who knows.

But, she’s not the kind of author who, for lack of a better term, JKRs it. I can’t imagine we’ll get a Battle of Hogwarts-esque killing of what felt like characters drawn from a hat. At least I hope not, for all that Edward saying “oh no, Rosalie died. How... tragic” and then finding a way to make it all about himself would crack me up.

More, while there are deaths that would be impactful or plot significant, I don’t feel they’d be in keeping with Meyer’s style. She had several opportunities to kill Bella’s human friends, and yet they survived James, Victoria, and Victoria’s newborn army.

Unless I’m forgetting anyone, the only good guys Meyer killed were Harry Clearwater, Bree, and Irina, and she then proceeded to feel so bad about killing Bree that she gave Bree the unique honor of a spinoff novel.

This isn’t an author who likes killing characters.

But, she may have to in order to kick the Cullens into action.

I imagine news will reach them that one of the covens who came to their aid in Breaking Dawn have been accused of some crime, and the Volturi dealt with them accordingly. Which coven this will be is anyone’s guess, could be one of the single nomads Carlisle befriended.

So, there’s one way for characters to die.

I don’t think the Cullens are in significant danger.

Disregarding for a moment that Meyer really isn’t the type to kill her darlings, I would pinpoint Alice, Carlisle, Edward, and Jasper as the ones who might die. They’re the ones whose deaths would have the most impact.

Kill Alice, and the Cullens are in the dark about the future. They’ve come to depend on her gift, and her voice in the group is a decisive one. Her death would make them a lot more vulnerable, to say nothing of how the grief would incentivize them. Of course, Meyer would never actually do this.

Kill Edward, and Bella loses the love she worked so hard for, her utter devastation will be something to behold. Plus, Meyer seems to sincerely believe he’s vital in keeping the family safe, and that his gift has strategic importance. Alas, Meyer would never do this. As it happens I wouldn’t either in her shoes, though for different reasons.

Kill Jasper, and Meyer gets to have all the high stakes and shock of a Cullen being killed off, and Alice will be devastated, without killing one of the characters most important to her. Alas, Meyer wouldn’t do this to Alice either. Unless of course she’s killing both Alice and Jasper over the course of the story, but that’s not her style at all, plus it would take away from the intended love story. Jasper is safe.

Kill Carlisle, and that’ll certainly be a rallying point for vampires all over, because everyone loves that guy. Of course, the strategic sense in this escapes me, as the Volturi (assuming here that Meyer manages to for once not write Aro/Carlisle all the damn time- I have my doubts) would be killing the giftless pacifist who doesn’t want a confrontation, but let’s play ball. Carlisle’s death would be the incentive for a Volturi/Cullen confrontation. There’s also the narrative cliché of killing the mentor figure, but Carlisle never acts as a mentor to Bella or Renesmée, and the latter is supposed to be our new protagonist. Killing our heroine’s father’s sort-of-mentor is... well it’s not killing the mentor figure. Besides, over the course of the books much is made over Edward coming into his own and becoming a man, and Carlisle never had to die or step back for that to happen.

Plus, again, Meyer doesn’t kill characters if she can at all avoid it.

(That being said, given how absolutely bleak Twilight is, a part of me wants Carlisle to abandon ship.)

In short I think the Cullens are safe, and would bet money on this.

I think the pack is safe as well, though if we get a grand battle then some of them might perish. This also goes for Carlisle’s friends. But, as I mentioned above, I find even this unlikely, since me trying to picture Meyer killing characters yields this.

When it comes to the humans, Meyer might make something of the fact that Charlie is mortal, and death will take him from his immortal daughter and granddaughter sooner or later. Billy should be safe, though, and so should all the imprints.

In short, anon, I think someone will probably die, but it’s unlikely it’ll be a major character. If it is, then that will be one major character, singular, and the Meyer household will suffer a drastic increase in Kleenex shipments.

[twi-sight2020]

Do People Really Do This?

So, after Edward offers to take Bella to Seattle, she’s all in her own little word and ends up late for class, Mike doesn’t sit with her in class, but he does meet her-along with Eric- after and blabs on forever about the trip to the Beach, nothing new until lunch when Edward motions for Bella to sit with him, which pretty much shocks the universe.

”As long as I’m going to hell I might as well do it thoroughly.”

Oh Edward, my drama queen.He continues with this for a while, telling her that he’s tired of staying away from her, giving up on it, etc. She ask if they are friends, he says he’s not a good friend and he’s waiting for her to figure that out and leave....this conversation will be had a few hundred more times during these books but it is interesting to see how earnestly he tried to persuade her to leave him...even when she had no clue what was going on.

He ask if she has anymore theories on what he is...she mentally thinks how she has gone back and forth between “Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker” and  , well in 2020 all i can see is RPatz Batman and I laugh for days.

Edward comments on how frustrating it is not to know what she is thinking, and Bella, Bless her, has another moment of being pretty damn great, being snarky af and commenting on how she “can’t imagine “ how frustrating someone being cryptic could be. He calls her out for having a temper and she-rightly- says it’s just about disliking double standards. Again, Bella is a hell of a lot smarter, snarkier, and more interesting than many give her credit for. 

Unfortunately, she also then has the “My stomach was full-of butterflies” line and I have to sigh because, I think we can all admit, that line was a bit cheesy. Like...Gouda levels. 

However, she does somewhat redeem herself by asking Edward to, you know, not be a dick, and warn her next time he plans on pushing her away.  Which, yea, it’s only fair. Because, it’s pretty damn shitty to just keep ditching her, regardless of how he

thinks

it’s for the right reasons. Edward agrees , but then wants her to tell him one of her theories, to which she suggest the radio active spider. He laughs a bit before the ‘What if I’m not the Hero, I’m the bad guy” line which...I actually really like.

I also like how she has the moment of realizing he is dangerous and that he has, indeed, tried to warn her, before she points out that he’s still not bad. Edward disagrees( because he gives Angel a run for his money in terms of vampire guilt trips, but Bella refuses to believe that.

Edward then says he’s skipping class for the day, but Bella is like , “Yea, no, I’m going, I’m way too chicken to skip.” Which, yea, same Bella, same.  Like, if I was going to skip class, I just skipped the whole day. Anyway, she gets to class and they are doing...blood typing.

Ok, honest question, did anyone actually do blood typing  in their High School Biology? I was in Honors Bio and we never did anything like this, and none of my friends in the regular classes ever mentioned this. Nor was this done in my Anatomy class or even Forensic Science. Like, I’m pretty sure my school would have been sued if they had students do activities where they had in injure themselves or deal with blood.

Bella gets faint at the sight of blood which, amuses the hell out of me. I have a friend like this who pretty much faints anytime she has to have blood works and yea, I laugh. #Badfriend. 

Mike offers to take her to the nurse and on the way there Bella...lays down...on the sidewalk. I...really have no words for the because she didn’t actually pass out...she just fetl faint and...LAID ON THE SIDEWALK. Like, who does this?  She’s more of a drama queen than Edward.

Edward see Bella and thinks she’s hurt which, who wouldn’t? SHE’S LAYING ON THE DAMN SIDEWALK. he ask if she can her him and she says “

No, go away.”

Which is pretty damn funny. Edward picks her up to take her to the nurse and she feels embarrassed , more so than LAYING ON THE DAMN SIDEWALK???  Edward walks off and leaves Mike, and then teases Bella about her blood phobia.

They get to the nurses office and in a moment Mike brings in another kid who fainted, Bella leaves because she says she can “smell the blood” Edwards says humans can’t, but Bella insist it’s the smell that makes her sick and Edward seems very intrigued. I, also am, tbh? Like we have this set up of Bella being able to smell blood, Edward can’t read her mind, it almost feels like there is something....unique about her but then...well, we’ll get into more of these things that kinda popped up in this book and seemed like it was leading somewhere and then it didn’t. 

Mike glares at Edward and is all “you like better” at Bella, being a lil jealous shit. Then he reminds of of the beach trip she’s supposed to join in, making it clear Edward isn’t invited. Of course, Bella does ask him to go, but Edward is like “Let’s....not make Mike snap. “ HAHAHAHA

Edwards gets Bella out of gym and she plans on driving home, but  Edward is like “Yea, no, you were laying on a sidewalk, not a chance you can drive.” Well, he was a bit nicer than that but... you get the idea.

They bond over Clair de Lune  and how her mom likes classic music. Which leads to them discussing her mother.We don’t get alot of info about Renee during this series, in fact the most description we get is probably right here when Bella informs us Renee is:

Prettier than her

More out going and brave than her

Irresponsible

Slightly eccentric

an unpredictable cook

and Bella’s best friend.

Which, I don’t...see. Sorry Bella, but my mom is one of my Best friends, and I talk to her and about her all the time. Even in college when I was living away from her she was still on my mind alot. Bella says it hurts to talk about her, but even in her thoughts, her mother is often absent unless something DIRECTLY effects her mom.

Edward then randomly ask Bella her age and then says she doesn’t seem seventeen. She remarks that her mom said she was born 35 years old. They then go a little more into how Her mother married a younger man and how Bella is still supportive as long as her mother is happy.

Edward has a whole moment of “”Would she extend the same courtesy to you?No matter who your choice was?” HA, cute, like you plan on ever letting her mother know what you are. -eye roll- they make some jokes about “No one too scary’ and Bella admits that she thinks he could be scary if he wanted to be.  She ask about his family and all we get are. His parents died so long ago he barely remembers them, and he loves Esme and Carlise.” Then she ask about his siblings and he says this “My brother and sister, and Jasper and Rosalie for that matter...” And like....they made it a point in the book to say that the “official story” was that Jasper and Rosalie were twins  but ....were Edward, Emmett, and Alice supposed to be biological siblings? At least according to the town? Because otherwise wouldn’t he have called them all his siblings? 

Edward then tells Bella he and Emmett are going hiking this weekend, skipping school tomorrow. I know I’ve said this before, but HOW THE HELL DO THE CULLENS GET AWAY WITH SKIPPING SCHOOL THIS MUCH? Do they not have a truancy board in Forks???Or, was this something where Meyer livid that she just assumed all other schools allowed? I NEED TO KNOW DAMMIT? Edward then makes Bella promise not to get hurt while he’s gone and she gets pissy and slams the door on him, making this lil shit smirk as he drives off. Again, I know Bella is supposed to be accident prone and all, but ....it also kind feels like her luck is... well, they mention at some points how it was almost like her “number was up” and ...always struck me as a plot that went no where, but we’ll get more into that in the next few chapters. Until then,  Stay Safe

[volturisecretary]

Sometimes i have in mind a very funny AU where Stephenie Meyer is apart of the vampire community and just publish books talking shit about the Volturi but they can’t do anything bc of freedom of speech and they are so PISSED AHAH. just someone trashtalking you / creating rumour through book about your whole family, do you have any headcanon about it ?

Conspiracy Theory: I’m convinced that the Volturi wrote the Twilight Saga for one major reason: to continue the spread of misleading myths regarding vampires. Additionally, there is an added, very petty, bonus that by writing about ‘Carlisle’ being a ‘young doctor,’ Aro would be preventing him from working as a physician for the next century due to it being too ‘conspicuous.’ Aro could have written the books from the ‘memories’ he’s gathered through Alice and Edward. This would also explain why certain areas (like the plot points with the shapeshifters) didn’t always make sense because Aro wasn’t really able to gather much information on it since their abilities don’t work on them. It may also explain why all of the Cullens are so dramatic, because the Volturi are roasting them due to the whole New Moon debacle.

Some myths that were put into circulation by the Volturi through the Twilight Saga:

Vampires have either red and/or golden eyes: The Volturi thought this was a clever jab at Carlisle’s closely held religious notions. Of course, the ‘good’ vampires have different colored eyes than the ‘bad’ vampires.

Vampires never sleep: They do. They need that sweet memory consolidation.

Vampires reflect sunlight prismatically: Vampires neither burn or sparkle like a beautiful diamond in the sunlight. Instead, they look corpse-like, and their veins look strange and black.

Vampires don’t have fangs: Vampires do. Don’t believe the Volturi’s lies.

Otherwise, if you wanted to assume Stephanie Meyer was a vampire and wrote it rather than the Volturi, I’d imagine the Volturi aren’t overly strict about the types of vampire media published as long as it isn’t a video of an actual vampire. As I mentioned above, their whole mission is to create false myths about vampires to prevent their discovery. The Offical Guide™️ portrays the Volturi as more laid back in regards to staying up to date with popular culture, but I would disagree with that. I suspect if a vampire was going to publish a book that included too much of the true mythology, they’d intercept it during the publication process and have those areas changed. I think vampires are only given so much ‘freedom of speech,’ due to their laws being based on the secrecy of themselves. Additionally, they may get a not so fun visit from Felix and Demetri to help them remember the importance of their laws.